Over
the past 22 years I have had the honour of appearing with East Suffolk Morris
Men in the guise of ‘Henry’ – a hooden beast. Henry is no single type of animal
but tries to encapsulate the many centuries of beast traditions in one form.

Where
ever one goes today, when watching a team of Morris Dancers they will at some
point in the performance be accompanied by a fool, a dame, or a beast. A number
of years ago I was pleased to run a workshop on animal behaviour for the Morris
Ring Fools and Animals Weekend.

If you
are thinking about trying out the role of beast master then the following are my
thoughts on the job and how it can become a fun and rewarding part of a
performance.

A
Little Bit of History

Animal
traditions whether for religious or custom purposes have been around for many
centuries and were originally nothing to do with Morris Dancing; reference
things like the Welsh Mari Llwyd, Inuit shamanic tradition, native American
tribal dances, Egyptian religious characters, and many more – they all have
human characters dressed or behaving like animals.

These
traditions are mostly centred on the beast being a good character who will
assist and bring fertility or luck to the tribe/village, but only if there is a
gift or payment made. This could be in the way of actual produce, money, food
etc, or by more esoteric methods such as psychic effort; South American Shamans
or African Witch Doctors following mind altering episodes, or, religious worship
for example.

It is
only over the last 400 years or so that these traditions have come together with
the Morris dance. There is a well known painting from the c1620 called the
Thames at Richmond showing a Hobby Horse in conjunction with the dance.

None
of these traditions or religions were the cosy, ‘Walt Disney’ kind of animal,
they may have been friendly to a degree but had about them something almost
terrifying and other-worldly. In my opinion this is the sort of atmosphere a
Morris Beast Master should aim to conjure.

Hooden
Horses

Animals such as the Mari Llwyd or my very own ‘Henry’ fall into this category;
not necessarily a horse, the user is totally covered by the animal’s cape or
cloak. The material should be of a suitable thickness to hide the master, whilst
still affording them a decent level of vision.

The
master should get out of the mind-set of being ‘human and wearing a costume’ as
this will always be noted by the audience and will not deliver the appropriate
level of mystery.

Questions the master should ask themselves;

1)
What is my animal? Am I nasty or nice?

The
behavioural traits of the animal should be studied; A horse, for example, as
appears with Bristol Morris Men, will at times be approachable and friendly, at
times be crotchety and cantankerous, a Dragon; Standon Morris Men, should
normally be worrying, a little sly, and at times down right objectionable. The
master should tailor his behaviour when inside the animal accordingly.

I
always try to make Henry’s behaviour unpredictable which automatically adds to
the level of uncertainty in the minds of the audience. What also helps is that
Henry is not any one sort of animal; he has been called a horse, duck, gnat,
bat, and many other names in his life; all of which are wrong. Henry is Henry!

2) How
much vision/room have I got?

Having
an animal such as a Stag (St Albans Morris Men) means the master should at times
be quiet and still, but at other times ‘take flight’ and run. Where the type of
material or amount of people hinders all round vision the running about could be
impeded and could lead to collision with members of the audience.

A lot
of Hooden Horses have small panels at the front just under the lower jaw by
which the master can see out, but in my experience these panels attract audience
attention as they try to peer in to see who the master is, thereby detracting
from the performance.

Some
materials such as Industrial nylon do allow all round vision thereby allowing
the master to see out well enough to avoid having panels, or collisions! This
adds to the mystery and I have heard many members of the audience ask ‘how can
he see?’

On big
dance areas, using the animal to the full is great, run about, caper, leap and
twirl, do everything you can to attract attention.

3) Is
this the right spot for an animal?

Gauge
the audience; one man and his dog are not always the best audience to try to
entertain. Children may be good as they can be entertained or worried in good
measure. Westminster’s Unicorn is a total showman and has younger audiences
eating out of his hand. But, be careful, they can be scrofulous little tykes and
pull your cape or try to trip you up; they run in pack and this gives them
confidence, so you don’t want too many of them.

Large
audiences of mixed ages are good as they allow you to steer away from the
sections which may not be responsive or the kids if they are stroppy or scared.
If the mystery works and there is a level of fear in the audience then this is
ok. Some children will cry, some ladies will scream, some men will run away; it
all adds to the show. I have seen grown men cowering from Bristol Morris Men’s
Horse, and Henry.

4) How
animalistic should I be?

It
depends on a number of things;

i) how
you feel on the day, you could want to chew up the audience and spit out the
bones, on the other hand you may just need a cuddle.

ii)
the type of audience. If they are responding well then work with them, be the
animal, go and chew some foliage, kick a pebble around to play with it for a
while, pinch someone’s hat, sneak up and nibble a ladies ear. If they are not
interested do more leaping around in the dance, and be part of the show but away
from the audience.

iii)
Are there toys about? All animals enjoy playing; Morris sticks, road cones,
hats, discarded sandals, anything loose and on the floor is good for a toy and
can be used to good effect; work with these things, don’t always be with the
audience.

The
bottom line is that you are taking on the role of the animal. Personality is
important, but so is the fact that all animals occasionally have to scratch, for
example; standing on one leg whilst using the other foot to scratch behind an
ear is effective.

The
Hobby Horse

Constant Billy; East Suffolk’s other horse, Padstow, Minehead, and Phoenix
Sword’s ‘Eric’ are all examples of the Hobby Horse. Different to the Hooden
horse, the master can be seen by the audience and has to juggle being human and
animal at the same time.

Behavioural traits of the animal are still highly important; the crotchety
horse, the mischievous ostrich and so forth, but now the master can use these
traits almost against themselves in order to gain the Audiences ‘trust’; he can
be suave and witty chatting to the audience but then the animal turns against
him and the watchers get the entertainment by witnessing the ensuing battle
between man and beast!

The
Master

Whilst
the master is visible, they should always have one section of their mind in
‘animal’ mode as they still have to behave for the animal as well. The above
questions above should still be asked.

If it
appears to be a good spot, talk to your audience, some will ask questions about
the dance or the animal, the children can stroke the animal while you talk to
the adults. Throw in some simple jokes or witticisms.

Des
Herring (Constant Billy; East Suffolk Morris Men) is a very genial beast master
who likes talking to the audience and carries with him other props and tools of
the trade; Gemima is the ‘little girl with the curl in the middle of her
forehead’ doll – he recites the nursery rhyme for the kids, he also sits them
round him and on the count of three they all have to shout ‘Billy’. All these
things aid in helping the audience enjoy the show.

Where
this falls down is if the beast master ‘forgets’ he is wearing the animal. I.e.
a good collector could do exactly the same thing without the animal being there.
There should be times when the animal takes over; this will add another layer to
the ‘show’.

The
Animal

This
is where the personality of the beast comes to the fore. Is your animal a
lecherous old so-and-so? Does it only want to talk to the pretty young things?
Is it a dreamer who wants to go and smell the flowers? Does it get side-tracked
by a rather interesting looking gully?

Spying
someone who wants to talk to you and making for them whilst making eye contact
is fine, but instead of going straight to them, break off because the animal
wants to chew the grass. There can then be a struggle between man and beast
before the master regains control and forces the beast to go to the member of
the audience.

Conversely, whilst talking to someone about the history of the Morris, for
example, the animal can ‘spook’ at a sudden noise and run off across the dance
area before being brought to heal and return to continue the discussion.

General Rules

Observe

As the
master your eyes and ears are your greatest friends. Whether you are a hobby
horse rider, or a hooden beast, sights and sounds can bring all sorts of useable
reactions or toys; the shriek from a slightly concerned woman, the bark of a
dog, a bumblebee buzzing past can all create reactions in the beast.

As a
beast your reactions are highly important as they will help define your
personality; do you attack road signs, are you frightened by crisp packets etc,
keeping eyes and ears on the surroundings will show you where props are which
can be worked into your show, sometimes at the drop of a hat; on one appearance
Bristol Morris Men’s Horse chased a horsebox the entire length of Thaxted High
Street to enormous applause from the crowd.

Layers
of Personality

Try
not to get stuck into one particular pattern. Animals, including the human
animal, do not spend all their time showing one particular emotion; perhaps you
could have risen from the wrong side of the bed, perhaps you could be feeling
peaceful, perhaps you want to be alone.

The
loss of temper comes upon every one of us from time to time, perhaps the hobby
horse can loss its cool over the fact that the rider doesn’t want to run through
the flower beds, perhaps the hooden animal doesn’t like yellow shirts.

Changing the behaviour, altering the interaction with the audience, ignoring the
audience completely, all create the layers which add interest.

Money

Should
the animal or rider collect money? There is no simple answer to this. For the
hobby horse rider it is undoubtedly easier as an appropriate receptacle can be
carried around and ‘waved’ at the crowd whilst saying suitable things; “Anyone
not paid twice!”, “Keep the shiny metal things; I’m happy with the tatty old
bits of paper!”, “This is the age of equality, that gives me the right to take
money off everyone!” and so on.

Obviously as a hooden horse, the master must remain silent at all times, but
there are those animals which have a mechanism in their mouths which deposit
money into a bag through a hole in their bottom jaw. The animal can therefore
‘eat’ money.

However, the ability to collect does have its down side. It controls the
behaviour of the animal quite considerably. The rider does not want to be
leaping around whilst holding a hat full of loose change, if the hooden animal’s
bag is large then there is a danger of the rider being hit on the head by a full
bag of cash. Similarly if the audience see the beast as foul-tempered and
snapping a people, they are not going to put their hands in its mouth just to
give money.

Construction

If you
are making your animal from the ground up, then you need to consider what you
want it to be like before sketching out ideas. If your beast is a feisty
character that is going to be leaping around and chasing people, or running
through the dances, then you do not want something that weighs a ton and a half,
for obvious reasons.

Choose
your materials carefully, talk to existing masters who have similar animals to
the one you will be making and find out what the pros and cons and pitfalls are
before embarking on your project.

Above
all though the design should be simple; let the audience make up their own minds
about what it is.

References

A good
tip is to watch animals in the wild – wildlife TV progs, on-line resources, etc,
see how the animals behave when frightened, cross, at play, sleeping etc and
indeed, how they act when doing normal everyday things; scratching, yawning,
sneezing, greeting others of the same species, and so on.

The
Change

One of
the most important things is, whether hooden or hobby, the audience should never
see the master changing into the animal as it detracts from the effect. It is
not always possible to hide whilst dressing, but the fewer people see you
becoming the animal the better

Conclusion

The
Morris Animal is a beast with its roots in history, it is the thing of myth and
legend, it is your friend, it is your worst nightmare. The beast will attack
men, terrify children, and molest women, or it will be the fool, the jester, the
juvenile, and these things in good measure will provide you, the master, with
hours of fun and the appropriate level of mysticism to bring just the right
level of fear to the audience; this is after all what they want; that little bit
of adrenalin; entertainment; a show..